WHAT IS LEADERSHIP?Leadership is an interactive conversation that pulls people toward becoming comfortable with the language of personal responsibility and commitment.

LEADERSHIP TIPS“The crux of leadership development that works is self-directed learning: intentionally developing or strengthening an aspect of who you are or who you want to be, or both.” Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis & Annie McKee (Harvard Business School Press)

Advertising

Privacy PolicyWe use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you.
For example, Google, as a third party vendor, uses a DART cookie to serve ads on this site based upon your visit to our sites and other sites on the Internet. You may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting Google ad and content network privacy policy at: www.google.com/privacy_ads.html.
If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, please contact the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) at (207) 467-3500 or www.networkadvertising.org.

The words of editor Ralph Dixey of Tevope in Fort Hall, Idaho published in 1939; "Friends, we are all Indians no matter how white or dark you are. It does not make any difference where you are, what you are doing, or how much money you are making. We are all Indians..."

For Mark Trahant, a "mixed blood" enrolled member of Fort Hall, the words had particular meaning. He thought about who he was and who he might become; he began to realize that being an Indian today included, as it always had, the incorporation of change. He started to understand more fully, as he later wrote, that Indian peoples had "always made alliances, inter-married, and borrowed ideas and technology from other people." "Indian history didn't end in the 1800s," Trahant added. "Indian cultures aren't some sort of museum piece, that are frozen in time, preserved under glass. They evolve, grow and continually try to renew themselves."

Five hundred years after Columbus, one hundred years after Wounded Knee, American Indians had not disappeared.

"The Life of Margretta" is the story of a 20th Century woman who was born, lived and was buried in a small village, named Broadalbin, in Upstate New York.

When her grandchildren were grown and had moved from their parent's home, she decided to write a reminiscence of her young life up to her marriage in 1939. Over the years, she would write her story, chapter by chapter, and send it to her son in Michigan to word process on his computer and send back to her for editing. Her story begins with her first childhood memories and ends at her marriage in 1939.

Within her book, she writes about how the name, Margretta, has been passed down in her family beginning from the marriage of a young woman named Otstock (born of a Mohawk woman and Frenchman by the name of Hartell) to a Dutchman, named Cornelius Antonissen Van Sleyck, who emigrated to the colonies in 1634.

Otstock was given the Dutch name "Margretta" and her husband was given the name "Broer" or brother and adopted into the Mohawk tribe after their marriage. The first North American Margretta and her new husband spent long periods of time in Canajoharies, the home of the Mohawks. As a family tradition, the name, Margretta, has been passed down as a middle name to girls thereafter....including the author's daughter, Jill Margretta.

As the only child of two career parents, Margretta's story resonates with today's children of full-time working parents who seek a better work/life integration.

She went on to raise four children, born in the 1940's, and her book is dedicated to their children. It is a duty for each generation to record their own doings in order that those of the future may use them as a guide for emulation or avoidance.

Data from the most recent censuses attested to the great body of American Indians that had become merged in the indistinguishable mass of the United States population. The American Indian population had reached its nadir early in the twentieth century with less than a quarter million people counted---increasing to 1.9 million in 1990.

Some of that demographic explosion can be explained through a change in how the census was compiled, whereby individuals could identify themselves as Indians or as Indians of multiple ancestry or as people of Indian descent. Many enrolled Indians were of mixed ancestry and had spent part, most, or all of their lives away from their "home" communities. Increased intermarriage with non-Indians had also been an important contributing factor.

For American Indians in the late 1990s, knowledge gleaned from Web sites could be combined with wisdom imparted from the elders. Familiarity with urban centers could be merged with strength drawn from the old landmarks on tribal terrain. There were lessons to be learned from the traditional stories and from the tales of new storytellers.

According to Census Bureau data from 2013, about 4.8 million Americans moved across state lines in the previous year. That is down from 5.76 million in 2006 and 7.5 million in 1999. All in all, the percentage of Americans moving across state lines has fallen by about half since the 1990s.

The slowdown represents a tectonic shift in our economy and labor market--across all industries and all incomes and ages. Clearly, the recession has something to do with declining mobility. You can't move for a job if no jobs exist. You can't buy a house if nobody gives you a mortgage. And you can't sell a house and take off if nobody is buying.

This is not a short-term supply-and-demand issue or a side effect of a slow-growth economy or shift in demographics. The change is deeper. Earnings have been become similar across the country, meaning there is less incentive to move from one place to another in search of a raise.

The rise of the Internet can explain much of the rest of the decline in mobility, by reducing the chance that a worker will move and move and move again in search of a good neighborhood or a good job. By information being more accessible, the Internet has improved the quality of any given move. As a result, Americans' moves are stickier these days.

Sir William Johnson was the King’s Superintendent of Indian Affairs in America and the only direct representative of the Crown, aside from the Royal Governor. Johnson received the only baronetcy ever granted on American soil; for keeping the American Indians peaceful during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). He settled in “The Gate of the Adirondacks,” and later married a Mohawk Indian woman.

The men and women, who under the direction and chaperonage of Sir William Johnson, commenced the labor of converting the savage wilderness into what is now Fulton County with its cities, villages, farms, and home's, are remembered by us collectively with respect. Their hardships made them almost heroic and time has obscured their shortcomings. They were comparatively few in number yet few of them stand out from the rest with clarity.

Prior to 1762, when General Sir William Johnson, the most important individual in the then English province of New York, and excepting Benjamin Franklin in all the thirteen colonies, removed from Fort Johnson up on the hills to Johnstown and there occupied his new home, the county was wilderness except in its southern part.

He brought in many Scotch and English emigrants and settled them on his lands in Broadalbin, Mayfield, Northampton, Johnstown and eastern Ephratah. He built roads east and west from Johnstown and erected grist mills, saw mills and potash works for their use. He built a school-house in Johnstown and maintained a school there at his own expense and encouraged schools everywhere. He aided in building churches and established a Masonic Lodge in Johnstown.

Sir William had persuaded a shipload of Scottish Highlanders from Perth shire to brave the Atlantic to establish the glovemaking industry in America. When Johnson brought over his settlers one contingent came from Perth in Scotland, a town which had a glove makers’ guild very early. That infant industry of theirs became the main one of the county.

The Highlanders brought their tools—needles, thread, and the sword-like shears necessary for cutting leather—and they brought the closely guarded guild craft techniques of Europe.

Material they found in abundance. Indians provided the leather hides that gave gloves a unique durability and feel. The crystal-clear water from the Adirondack Mountains was perfect for the tanning of hides to a velvety soft texture. And the U.S. glovemaking craft was born. The Perth men found a ready raw material in the furs and skins of the nearby forests and made gloves for themselves, their neighbors and finally with the advent of the Yankees, for distant customers. The leather gloves and mittens produced were traded with the tin peddlers from Boston and the local economy flourished.

Sir William Johnson had died the year before Lexington and Bunker Hill. At his death, the greater part of his land possessions in the county and elsewhere passed, by the term of his will, into the possession of his son and successor in the baronetcy, Sir John Johnson.

The troubles in the colonies that led to armed resistance had been brewing for several years. Sir William was a great land proprietor and the only direct representative of the Crown, aside from the Royal Governor, with duties spread over all the thirteen colonies through his office as Indian Superintendent. His letters and papers show his concern in the progress of the troubles and his efforts to avoid them. His death was attributed to exhaustion caused by a protracted parley with the Indians at Johnson Hall, finished on the day of his death, in which he labored to quiet their unrest, due to the pre-war troubles that the Indians were cognizant of and by which they were greatly disturbed.

There is little in his posthumous papers that would definitely indicate the course that Johnson would have taken had he continued to live; although he strongly condemns some of the actions of the New England Men. When the Revolution broke out in 1775 the county was composed of prosperous communities and scattered farms with its central activities at Johnstown.

Dallas attorney Joey Messina has a side business some might find surprising: He uses his own money to make mortgage loans to people who banks likely would avoid.

Across the U.S., some mom-and-pop investors are yanking money from retirement accounts and safe but stingy savings to take on the risk of becoming "hard-money" mortgage lenders.

In the past two years, Mr. Messina has funded 20 mortgages, ranging in size from $40,000 to $102,000. The mortgages carry interest rates of 14%—more than double the rates charged by most banks and far superior to the returns Mr. Messina received on his savings account.

And despite the housing market's weakness, Mr. Messina believes that originating home loans in the current environment, when many economists believe housing is at or near bottom, is less risky than putting money in the volatile stock market or opaque bond market.

"I can't drive by and look at those [stocks and bonds]," says Mr. Messina, who is 35 years old. Plus, he says, investing in residential real estate earns "passive income that doesn't require much work from me."

He isn't alone. Across the nation, a number of mom-and-pop investors are pulling money out of their retirement accounts and safe, but low-yielding, savings to take on the risk of becoming "hard-money" mortgage lenders, who charge high interest rates to borrowers who have been rejected by traditional banks.

For example, I know of an investor who buys time-share condo's in Florida at bargain prices and then rents them on a weekly basis at top dollar to Snow Birds and sun-seeking tourists during the Winter months. He makes a much better return than just leaving his cash in money market accounts.

Hard-money mortgage lending represents just a tiny slice of the mortgage market, although the activity is growing rapidly. Guy D. Cecala, publisher of trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance, estimates hard-money loans will account for about 1% of the 5.5 million mortgages expected to be originated this year. But he says activity in that sector is up sharply from a few years ago, when very few hard-money loans were originated.

By Barbara T. Armstrong

Who says corporate culture isn’t concrete? Not America’s best workplaces.

After three years of a frosty economy, the war for talent is heating back up. According to a recent survey by the National Association for Business Economics, the employment outlook by companies in the United States has soared to a 12-year high.

Moreover, attracting and retaining talent is “at the top of the agenda” for CEOs, according to the 2011 Annual Global CEO Survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers. And now, reports The Wall Street Journal, many companies are launching employer-branding campaigns—designed to make a company seem like a desirable place to work—for the first time in several years. Why? Because “already companies are finding that the most skilled candidates are in short supply, and are difficult to find.”

One critical component of corporate culture is a company’s workplace—the physical environment for its treasured talent. But here’s a news flash: many talent leaders don’t realize its increasing importance despite the fact it’s, quite literally, underfoot.

So, Kahler Slater, a global design enterprise, set out to study the physical environments of the Best Companies to Work For® in America: 150 organizations—small, medium, and large—recognized by the Great Place to Work® Institute. For talent leaders, these “Best Companies” are the ones to watch; they’re unsurpassed in attracting and retaining top talent and, accordingly, achieving formidable financial results.

Kahler Slater's research findings, from both surveys and site visits, reveal how "Best Companies," through four common characteristics, reflect and reinforce their culture in their physical environments.

1. External and internal brand alignment

The most successful brands provide an “experience”—an emotional engagement between a company and its customers. At the Best Companies, such an experience is also expressed internally. For employees, the dots connect; the brand, internally and externally, is aligned.

At Mattel,for example, where “play” is the toymaker’s brand, employees shuttle between buildings in a Hot Wheels van and showcase their favorite toys in their personal workspace. At Cascade Asset Management, an environmentally minded recycler of computer components, sustainability reigns supreme, from a wholly green headquarters to employee nameplates personally made from recycled computer pieces. And at JM Family Enterprises, a top owner of Toyota dealerships, the corporate campus bows to Japanese culture, including Japanese gardens, architecture, and artifacts.

2. A visible spirit of culture

Through countless choices, both big (office location) and small (interior signage), the spirit of a company’s culture is in plain sight. At the Best Companies, that spirit starts with first impressions—often from the outside in—and stays clear and consistent throughout the work environment.

For instance, at Genentech, the biotech giant’s headquarters is located on “DNA Way”—a nod to the company’s roots in genetic research—and outdoor banners put a human face, quite literally, on lives forever changed through the work of Genentech employees. At online retailer Zappos, the company’s open, non-hierarchical culture insists on cubicles for everyone—from Call Center reps to the CEO—and “fun and a little weird” workspaces that convey true individuality.

3. Gathering spaces to celebrate and build camaraderie

There is no corporate culture without community—people coming together to connect, celebrate, and create a spirit of camaraderie. At the Best Companies, gathering spaces are fundamental, like a town square in a village or a student union on a college campus. Some companies have large spaces, ideal for “all hands” meetings, while others have smaller spaces, adaptable and multifunctional.

At Ultimate Software, for example, a basketball court now occupies the HR software leader’s atrium lobby—a wager won by employees after meeting a mega sales goal set by their fun, sports-minded CEO. (The “UltiCourt” still serves as a lobby and reception area and is also a favorite spot for company-wide gatherings.) At Sage Products, the healthcare manufacturer uses its large café at lunchtime, when the company shuts its factory down to come together as a “family” and consciously connect business and manufacturing.

4. Visual storytelling that evokes pride and engages and recognizes people

Visual storytelling is a powerful tool. At the Best Companies, such “environmental branding” evokes company pride, engages and recognizes employees, and expands on the cultural narrative.

For instance, at Rackspace, a cloud computing company, employees created the world’s largest word-search puzzle—certified by Guinness World Records—to spotlight the firm’s values on a grand scale. At Sherwin-Williams, the paints and coatings giant, a museum-style tour of the company’s history graces the headquarters lobby, recognizing employees for their innovations and accomplishments through the decades.

So, you see, corporate culture can be, and is, quite concrete. Now, as a talent leader, it’s up to you to get it underfoot.

Barbara T. Armstrong is a principal at Kahler Slater, a global architecture, design, and consulting enterprise specializing in Total Experience Design™. An expert in integrating workplace design and communications strategies, she is a sought-after designer, consultant, and conference presenter. To request a copy of the white paper Great Culture, Great Workplace, email her at barmstrong@kahlerslater.com.

Commercial real estate loans could generate losses of $100 billion by the end of next year at more than 900 small and midsize U.S. banks if the economy's woes deepen, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal.

Such loans, which fund the construction of shopping malls, office buildings, apartment complexes and hotels, could account for nearly half the losses at the banks analyzed by the Journal, consuming capital that is an essential cushion against bad loans.

Total losses at those banks could surpass $200 billion over that period, according to the Journal's analysis, which utilized the same worst-case scenario the federal government used in its recent stress tests of 19 large banks. The potential losses could exceed revenue over that period at nearly all the banks analyzed by the Journal.

The potential losses on commercial real estate are by far the largest problem facing the midsize and small banks, easily exceeding losses on home loans, which could total about $49 billion, according to the Journal's analysis. Nearly one-third of the banks could see their capital slip to risky levels because of commercial real estate losses, the Journal found.

In every quarter except one since 1981, consumer spending rose over the previous year, adjusted for inflation. The main fuel for the spending was easy access to credit. Banks and other financial institutions were willing to lend households ever increasing amounts of money. Loans to consumers were viewed as low-risk and profitable.

Economists have been complaining about excessive borrowing and spending since the early 1980s. But no matter how many times economists predicted the demise of the consumer, the spending continued. The latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis show that the personal savings rate---the share of income left after consumption---fell from 12% in 1981 to just over zero today. And debt service, which is the share of income going to principal and interest on debt, kept rising.

The subprime crisis marks the beginning of the end for the long consumer borrow-and-buy boom. Standards for real estate lending have been raised. Credit cards are still widely available, bit it is only a matter of time before issuers get tougher. Research by economist Carroll suggests that every $1 decline in house prices lops about $.09 off of spending. That accords well with calculations by BEA economists. They figure that households took out $340 billion in cash from mortgage and home-equity financing in 2006. That source of funding could largely disappear over the next couple of years.

What comes next could be scary. Reduced access to credit will combine with falling real estate values to hit poor and rich alike. "We're in uncharted territory," says David Rosenberg, chief North American economist at Merrill Lynch, who's forecasting a mild drop in consumer spending in the first half of 2008. "It's pretty rare we go through such a pronounced tightening in credit standards."

Probably no one in American business has answered that question better than Sam Zell who amassed millions by looking at the same data everyone else has, and seeing what others don't. He has invested in everything from radio stations to sports franchises to newspapers to cruise ships. His practice of bypassing the blue chips for undervalued opportunities--often times businesses on their backs, even in bankruptcy--explains why he is known as "the grave dancer."

Zell co-founded, with Bob Lurie, Equity Group Investments in 1968. Now, the Chicago-based firm controls a multi-billion dollar mix of private, public, domestic, and foreign businesses. They made their names by viewing risk differently than their competition did. Contrary to their public image, they were not riverboat gamblers throwing their money around with reckless abandon. Rather, they invested in companies and industries that merely seemed excessively risky because others simply didn't recognize the underlying situation.

"One thing I know for sure: The assessment of opportunity is an art. There have been many examples in my career where the information was available to everybody. But why was I able to see that opportunity--and the rest of the world didn't--I don't know. And by the way, the rest of the world didn't see it until long after we were up and running."

Example: Barges

In 1979, the federal government passed an investment tax relief to encourage the construction of barges with a 25-year lifespan. "Well, as you might expect," Zell explains, "this resulted in too many 25-year barges being built, glutting the market. So for the next 25 years the business was just horrible. But we figured that 1979 plus 25 was 2004, when that huge glut of barges was going to be taken out of commission. So if you could get control of that industry before the original supply finally shrank, you'd do pretty well. So we got into the business when everyone else was getting out, and when 2004 came around, we were looking pretty good."

Federal authorities ask state lawmakers to consider repealing laws that harm competition among real estate brokers. The call came as part of a series of recommendations aimed at providing property buyers with greater information about the industry.

In a report released by the Justice Department's antitrust division and the Federal Trade Commission, the agencies said efforts are needed to ensure brokers act in a manner fair to consumers. They pledged to continue monitoring the conduct of real estate broker associations, especially when they act in concert, and to bring enforcement action when necessary.

The report said the federal government will try to inform state lawmakers and industry regulators about the effects of state and local laws or regulations on competition. And it urged state legislatures to consider repealing laws that limit choice and reduce the ability of new entrants in the real estate industry to compete.

The shakeout in the subprime area is the latest of the mortgage industry's periodic purges ofdubious practicesand weak lenders.

In the mid-to-late 1980s, savings and loan institutions moved into risky lending, sometimes to cover losses after interest rates turned against them. Courts found that some executives looted dying S&Ls. A 1989 government bailout ultimately cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

The collapse of many S&Ls, once the dominant force in home mortgages, opened the way for specialist mortgage-banking firms and commercial banks to take more of the business. Today, Countrywide and Wells Fargo & Co. have a combined share of around 30% of all home loans originated each year, but the rest of the market is splintered among more than 8,000 lenders affiliated with banks, thrifts or credit unions, while those that don't take deposits are regulated by state agencies.

While companies are free to lend through branch offices, Websites or call centers, their main way of reaching customers has been via independent mortgage-brokerage firms, generally tiny local outfits. Mortgage brokers find customers, advise them on which types of loans are available and collect fees for handling the initial processing. There are more than 50,000 mortgage-brokerage firms and they are involved in 60% of all home loans, up from 40% a decade ago, says Tom LaMalfa, managing director of Wholesale Access, a mortgage research firm in Columbia, MD.

But by outsourcing much of its direct contact with consumers, lenders also lost some control over the screening of borrowersand the presenting of loan choices. Some lenders and industry consultants say subprime lenders' dependence on brokers partly explains the industrywide surge in mortgage fraud. Fraud appears to be one reason for a recent rash of defaults occurring within the first few months of subprime loans. New subprime loans made in 2006 totaled about $605 billion, or about 20% of the total mortgage market, up from $120 billion, or 5% in 2001, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, an industry newsletter.

Wall Street is deeply entrenched in the entire mortgage market, including loans to more creditworthy borrowers, on which defaults so far have remained low. Last year, banks and brokerage firms pocketed $2.6 billion in fees from underwriting bonds that use mortgages as their collateral, nearly double 2001's figure. Wall Street banks also extended billions of dollars of short-term credit, called warehouse lines, that allowed lenders to fund mortgage loans.